Tourists told to be vigilant as ETA bombers hit Spanish resort

Tour operators and the Foreign Office yesterday advised holidaymakers to be vigilant during trips to Spain's popular resorts after a bomb blast at a tourist hotel at the weekend.

Thirteen people including a British woman and an Irish man were injured when 50kg (110lb) of high explosive planted in a stolen Renault 25 was detonated in a car park at the Cala Font hotel in Salou on the Costa Dorada.

The bomb had been planted by the Basque separatist group ETA, which has stepped up its campaign against the Spanish tourist industry.

The Foreign Office's website predicts that most British visitors will have a trouble-free holiday in Spain. But it adds: "Visitors should be aware of the heightened level of terrorist activity directed against the tourist industry, including the recent car bomb. This may lead to wider disruption."

A spokeswoman added: "We have updated our advice but are not planning further updates at the moment."

Thomson Holidays had 79 clients staying at the Cala Font. "Twelve asked to be flown back to Britain and we were happy to oblige," a spokesman said. The remaining holidaymakers were moved to other hotels in Salou.

Thomson's holiday flights to Spain continue from airports around the country. "The ETA campaign cannot stop holidaymakers going to Spain because they have been going there for years," the spokesman added. "But we have to make sure people are aware of the Foreign Office advice."

He expected that most travellers who have booked holidays in Spain would still make the trip. "When people call our travel centres, we give them the current Foreign Office advice. But if they are not happy and do not wish to travel, we are being as obliging as we can."

Today Spanish interior ministry officials will hold crisis talks with the Basque security department and Catalan police officers to coordinate their operations against ETA. The talks were originally scheduled for later this week but have been brought forward following the Salou bombing, although Catalan officials say they do not believe that ETA has established a commando group in the area.

Each year about 12m Britons and 40m tourists from other nations visit Spain, the world's third most popular holiday destination. Salou, a summer-only resort near Tarragona, is not as popular as Benidorm or the resorts of the Costa del Sol. But it appears in the brochures of many British operators.

In Saturday's blast, 824 guests were evacuated from two hotels and an apartment block following an ETA warning. None of the injuries was serious and the British woman is understood to have suffered a sprained ankle in the dash for safety. Many guests had been asleep in their rooms.

The ETA bomb is the latest in a renewed summer campaign. Last week the high-speed rail link between Madrid and Seville was disrupted when two small bombs exploded, damaging the track near Ciudad Real. The authorities attributed the blasts to ETA.

Last month, a bomb failed to go off at Malaga airport causing disruption for thousands of holidaymakers, and an ETA terrorist blew herself up with her own device at a holiday apartment in Torrevieja, near Alicante in eastern Spain.

These incidents followed an ETA communique on March 30 warning that tourist areas could be targeted and that visitors should stay away from Spanish resorts.